Diesel injection, ignition, and fuel air mixing
1. Fuel spray phenomena
2. Spontaneous ignition
3. Effects of fuel jet and charge motion on mixingcontrolled combustion
4. Fuel injection hardware
5. Challenges for diesel combustion
DIESEL FUEL INJECTION
The fuel spray serves multiple purposes:
• Atomization
• Fuel distribution
• Fuel/air mixing
Typical Diesel fuel injector
•
•
•
•
Injection pressure: 1000 to 2200 bar
5 to 20 holes at ~ 0.12 - 0.2 mm diameter
Drop size 0.1 to 10 m
For best torque, injection starts at about 20o BTDC
Injection strategies for NOx control
• Late injection (inj. starts at around TDC)
• Other control strategies:
 Pilot and multiple injections, rate shaping, water emulsion
1
Diesel Fuel Injection System
(A Major cost of the diesel engine)
• Performs fuel metering
• Provides high injection pressure
• Distributes fuel effectively
– Spray patterns, atomization etc.
• Provides fluid kinetic energy for charge mixing
Typical systems:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pump and distribution system (100 to 1500 bar)
Common rail system (1000 to 1800 bar)
Hydraulic pressure amplification
Unit injectors (1000 to 2200 bar)
Piezoelectric injectors (1800 bar)
Electronically controlled
EXAMPLE OF DIESEL INJECTION
(Hino K13C, 6 cylinder, 12.9 L turbo-charged diesel
engine, rated at 294KW@2000 rpm)
• Injection pressure = 1400 bar; duration = 40oCA
• BSFC 200 g/KW-hr
• Fuel delivered per cylinder per injection at rated
condition
– 0.163 gm ~0.21 cc (210 mm3)
• Averaged fuel flow rate during injection
– 64 mm3/ms
• 8 nozzle holes, at 0.2 mm diameter
– Average exit velocity at nozzle ~253 m/s
2
Typical physical quantities in nozzle flow
L
u
d
u
• Diesel fuel @ 100oC
– s.g. ~ 0.78, ~5x10-4 N-s/m2
• Nozzle diameter ~0.2 mm
• L/d ~ 5 to 10
• Reynolds No. ~ 105 (turbulent)
• Pressure drop in nozzle
~30 bar << driving pressure
(~1000 bar)
• Injection velocity
2 P
 500 m/s @ P of 1000 bar
 fuel
Fuel Atomization Process
• Liquid break up governed by balance between
aerodynamic force and surface tension
Webber Number (Wb ) 
 gas u 2 d

• Critical Webber number: Wb,critical ~ 30; diesel fuel
surface tension ~ 2.5x10-2 N/m
• Typical Wb at nozzle outlet > Wb,critical; fuel shattered
into droplets within ~ one nozzle diameter
• Droplet size distribution in spray depends on further
droplet breakup, coalescence and evaporation
3
Droplet size distribution
f(D)
Size distribution:
f(D)dD = probability of finding
particle with diameter in
the range of (D, D + dD)

1   f (D)dD
0
D
Average diameter
Volume distribution

1 dV

V dD
D   f (D) D dD
0
f (D) D3

 f (D) D dD
3
0
Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD)
D 32 

 f (D ) D
3
dD
 f (D ) D
2
dD
0

0
Droplet Size Distribution
Radial distance
from jet
centerline
Fig. 10.28 Droplet size distribution measured well downstream; numbers on the curves are
radial distances from jet axis. Nozzle opening pressure at 10 MPa; injection into air at 11 bar.
4
Droplet Behavior in Spray
• Small drops (~ micron size) follow gas stream;
large ones do not
– Relaxation time  d2
• Evaporation time  d2
– Evaporation time small once charge is ignited
• Spray angle depends on nozzle geometry and
gas density : tan(/2)  gasliquid
• Spray penetration depends on injection
momentum, mixing with charge air, and droplet
evaporation
Spray Penetration: vapor and liquid (Fig. 10-20)
mm
0
Shadowgraph image
showing both liquid
and vapor penetration
50
100
2
3
3.3
3.5 ms
mm
0
Back-lit image
showing liquidcontaining core
50
2
3
3.3
3.5 ms
5
Auto-ignition Process
PHYSICAL PROCESSES (Physical Delay)
 Drop atomization
 Evaporation
 Fuel vapor/air mixing
CHEMICAL PROCESSES (Chemical Delay)
 Chain initiation
 Chain propagation
 Branching reactions
CETANE IMPROVERS
 Alkyl Nitrates
– 0.5% by volume increases CN by ~10
Mixture cooling from heat of vaporization
Temperature drop (k)
125
100
Adiabatic, constant pressure evaporation
Dodecane in air
Initial condition:
Air at 800 K, 80 bar
Liq. dodecane at 350K, 80 bar
75
50
25
0
10-2
10-1
1
, Fuel equilvalence ratio of mixture
6
Ignition Mechanism: similar to SI engine knock
CHAIN BRANCHING EXPLOSION
Chemical reactions lead to increasing number of radicals,
which leads to rapidly increasing reaction rates
Formation of Branching Agents
Chain Initiation

RH  O  R  HO
2
2
  RH  ROOH  R
RO
2
  RCHO  RO

RO
2
Chain Propagation
Degenerate Branching
 , etc.
R  O2  RO
2
 O
H
ROOH  RO
 O  HO

RCHO  O  RC
2
2
Cetane Rating
(Procedure is similar to Octane Rating for SI Engine; for details,
see10.6.2 of text)
Primary Reference Fuels:
 Normal cetane (C16H34): CN = 100
 Hepta-Methyl-Nonane (HMN; C16H34): CN = 15
(2-2-4-4-6-8-8 Heptamethylnonane)
Rating:
 Operate CFR engine at 900 rpm with fuel
 Injection at 13o BTC
 Adjust compression ratio until ignition at TDC
 Replace fuel by reference fuel blend and change blend proportion to
get same ignition point
 CN = % n-cetane + 0.15 x % HMN
7
Ignition Delay
Ignition delays measured in a
small four-stroke cycle DI
diesel engine with rc=16.5, as a
function of load at 1980 rpm, at
various cetane number
(Fig. 10-36)
Fuel effects on Cetane Number (Fig. 10-40)
Adding
more stable
species
Adding less stable species
8
Ignition Delay Calculations
• Difficulty: do not know local conditions (species concentration
and temperature) to apply kinetics information
Two practical approaches:
• Use an “instantaneous” delay expression
(T,P) = P-nexp(-EA/ T)
and solve ignition delay (id) from
1
dt
(T( t ),P( t ))
• Use empirical correlation of id based on T, P at an appropriate
charge condition; e.g. Eq. (10.37 of text)
1   t si  id
t si


1
1
21.2
)(
)0.63 
id (CA)  (0.36  0.22Sp (m / s)) exp E A ( ~

P(bar )  12.4
RT(K ) 17190)


EA (Joules per mole) = 618,840 / (CN+25)
Diesel Engine Combustion
Air Fuel Mixing Process
• Importance of air utilization
– Smoke-limit A/F ~ 20
• Fuel jet momentum / wall interaction has a larger influence
on the early part of the combustion process
• Charge motion impacts the later part of the combustion
process (after end-of-injection)
CHARGE MOTION CONTROL
• Intake created motion: swirl, etc.
– Not effective for low speed large engine
• Piston created motion - squish
9
Interaction of fuel jet and the chamber wall
Sketches of outer vapor boundary
of diesel fuel spray from 12
successive frames (0.14 ms apart)
of high-speed shadowgraph
movie. Injection pressure at 60
MPa.
Fig. 10-21
Interaction of fuel jet with air swirl
Schematic of fuel jet –
air swirl interaction; 
is the fuel equivalence
ratio distribution
Fig. 10-22
10
Rate of Heat Release in Diesel Combustion
(Fig. 10.8 of Text)
Part of combustion affected
most by the charge motion
DIESEL FUEL INJECTION HARDWARE
• High pressure system
– precision parts for flow control
• Fast action
– high power movements
Expensive system
11
FUEL METERING AND INJECTION SYSTEM CONCEPT
Plunger
Fuel in
Fuel spill
Process:
• Fill
• Pressurize
• Inject
• Spill
Fuel injection
Fuel Delivery Control
From Diesel Fuel
Injection, Robert
Bosch GmbH,
1994
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Fuel Rack and In-line
Pump
From Diesel Fuel Injection,
Robert Bosch GmbH, 1994
Distributor pump
Diesel Injector
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Electronic Unit Injector
SAE Paper 891001
Injection pressure
• Positive displacement injection system
– Injection pressure adjusted to accommodate plunger
motion
– Injection pressure  rpm2
• Injection characteristics speed dependent
– Injection pressure too high at high rpm
– Injection pressure too low at low rpm
14
Common Rail Fuel Injection System
SAE Paper 1999-01-0833
Common Rail Injector
Nozzle opening speed controlled by the
flow rate difference between the Bleed (6)
and Feed (7) orifices
From Bosch: Diesel Engine Management
15
Caterpillar Hydraulic Electronic Unit Injector (HEUI)
Fuel line: 200kPa; Low pressure oil: 300 kPa;
High pressure oil: up to 23 MPa;
Intensifier area ratio 7:1
Injection pressure up to 150 MPa
SAE Papers 930270, 930271
Piezoelectric injectors
Piezo actuator module
Coupling module
Control valve
Nozzle module
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For both diesel and GDI applications
Up to 180 MPa injection pressure
5 injections per cycle
In vehicle production already
Suppliers: Bosch; Delphi; Denso; Siemens; …
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Split Injection (SAE Paper 940668)
50-50,3 stands for 50/50%
split of fuel injection, with 3o
CA spacing
1600 rpm, 184 KPa manifold
pressure, overall fuel
equivalence ratio = 0.45;
CHALLENGES IN DIESEL COMBUSTION
Heavy Duty Diesel Engines
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•
•
•
NOx emission
Particulate emission
Power density
Noise
High Speed Passenger Car Diesel Engines
• All of the above, plus
– Fast burn rate
17
Cavitation in Injection Nozzle
• Cavitation happens when local pressure is
lower than the fluid vapor pressure
• Effects
– Affects the spray angle
– Damage to the nozzle passage
• Factors affecting cavitation
– Combustion chamber pressure
– Local streamline curvature within the nozzle
Flow process that leads to cavitation
Flow separation
(recirculation region)
Flow reattachment
u1
pressure
Pmin
 Pc-Pb-Pf
Cavitation
occurs if
Pmin  fuel
saturation
pressure
u2
Bernoulli drop
Pb = ½ f (u12-u22)
= ½ f u22 [ (A2/A1)2-1]
 Pinj [ (A2/A1)2-1]
further friction drop Pf
Combustion chamber pressure
Pc
18